Cowboys Have Catch, And Game, 'Taken Away'
By Mike Fisher | @fishsports
GREEN BAY (CBSDFW.COM) — At least this week, loopy conspiracy theorists won't think the NFL is rigged in favor of the Dallas Cowboys.
The Cowboys on Sunday fell victim to a controversial call that had a most direct impact on Green Bay's 26-21 playoff win when Dez Bryant's acrobatic 31-yard fourth-down catch was either:
a) A game-winning touchdown in the final minutes.
b) A catch that would have Bryant ruled down inches from the goalline and therefore inches from a game-winning TD.
c) A non-catch because the ball was bobbled somewhere between the time Bryant caught the ball and moved toward the end zone.
"C'mon, man,'' said Dez, trying to reason his way through a flood of questioners in the post-game locker room at Lambeau Field. "I think it was a catch. They took it away."
Bryant didn't mean that in an accusatory way directed at referee Gene Steratore and crew, who easily topped referee Pete Morelli and crew last week when that group's controversial non-interference call aided Dallas' topping of the Lions. Really, he understands that it is one interpretation of the rules that "took it away.''
Judge the play by athletic standards, by The Eye Test, by common sense, even, and it is a catch … and one that goes down in history, a fitting bookend that really would've made this game "Ice Bowl II.''
But judge it using "The Calvin Johnson Rule'' (or "the Process Rule'')? That's part of what the NFL applied here.
"Although the receiver is possessing the football, he must maintain possession of that football throughout the entire process of the catch," Steratore said in a pool report. "In our judgment he maintained possession but continued to fall and never had another act common to the game. We deemed that by our judgment to be the full process of the catch and at the time he lands and the ball hits the ground it comes loose as it hits the ground, which would make that incomplete.''
The Cowboys argue that there are two problems there.
One, Bryant wasn't "continuing to fall''; he took two steps, under control (again, in Dallas' view), and then lunged for the end zone.
"I wasn't off balance," Bryant insisted. "I was trying to stretch for it and get in the end zone."
Two, Steratore said there were numerous angles that showed the ball leaving Bryant's hands and hitting the ground … but not everyone's eyes agree with that.
So the Packers move onto the NFC Championship Game in Seattle, one step from the Super Bowl. And the Cowboys — twice the team they were expected to be in this surprisingly pleasing season — move onto licking their wounds, building on this season, and remembering that controversial calls that are overcome is what separates the winners from the runners-up.
That was true last week against Detroit. It is true now. And coach Jason Garrett, who saw a gutsy defensive effort against the terrific Aaron Rodgers go for naught, who saw Tony Romo's brilliance come up a completion short, who saw Dez Bryant made an incredible catch that … wasn't … is already preaching perspective.
and did not agree with Garrett's assertion that Bryant made a move common to the game. After consultation with the New York offices, Steratore decided to change the call.
"I thought Tony made a great throw and Dez made a great catch,'' Garrett said. "It looked like to me he had three feet down. … Dez reached out for the goal line like he's done so many times. It's a signature play for him. He maintained possession of it throughout, in my opinion.
"But let me make it really clear: This game wasn't about the officiating. We had 60 minutes. We had an opportunity to come up here and win a football game, and at the end of the day we didn't get that job done.''
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